DJ Shadow releases music bundle through BitTorrent

BitTorrent has a new plan for getting money into the hands of
content producers -- and it's putting its method to the test with a
handful of new tracks from turntable maestro DJ Shadow.

The file-sharing hub released a "bundle" of three tracks on 24
July from Shadow's upcoming Total Breakdown: Hidden
Transmissions From the MPC Era, 1992-1996. The torrent,
which also includes photos and archival footage from Shadow's early
years, will come with free software from BitTorrent's advertising
partners -- like, for example, RealPlayer. If downloaders install
the software, the DJ will get a share of the revenue.

The DJ Shadow bundle is the first of many new content
experiments BitTorrent has in the works, the company said. Finding
ways for artists to make money from file sharing could be a
significant shift in the perception of the practice among artists
and music labels. It seems to have brought around Shadow (aka Josh
Davis), who in an interview with Wired last year lamented that
peer-to-peer file sharing had "removed
music sales from the equation."

"It's very difficult for any artist to talk about any of this
stuff on the record, because no one wants to get painted with the
Metallica brush," Shadow said at the time. "As a musician that has
been involved in one of the industries decimated by the internet,
I've experienced a weird duality: The internet was supposed to
democratize communication, but the opposite seems to have
happened."